


Gifts of the Full Moon

by Tikor



Series: Castebook:  Full Moon [7]
Category: Exalted
Genre: Gen, Lunars, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-04
Updated: 2018-02-05
Packaged: 2019-03-13 08:59:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13567215
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tikor/pseuds/Tikor
Summary: Tools and techniques to conquer, to defend one's self, and to protect loved ones.





	1. Artifacts and Evocations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fancy silver trinkets to rend and tear with.

Any Lunar can fight with their own two hands and feet, and that goes double for Full Moon Lunars, triple for those with yet more limbs to deploy. However, the warriors of the Full Moon Caste still know the value of a great weapon or solid armor. And those infused with Essence are the best to their discerning warrior eyes. Some are made by their own efforts, but the majority are given to Full Moons or taken as loot from fallen foes, made either by the cerebral No Moons or other Exalted, gods, demons, elementals, or the legendary Mountain Folk.

 **Second Skin Gloves, Moonsilver smashfists**  
Artifact 3  
The Second Skin Gloves look like someone dipped a Lunar’s hand in the Moonsilver that makes up their tattoos, only thicker. Similar smashfists have been adopted into Moonsilver Tattoos before as Tattoo Artifacts (add the Natural tag), but the Second Skin Gloves were made separate from any one Lunar by a Second Age artificer, the Silver Shadow, traded at great cost to Ma-Ha-Suchi, and given to Bear Fist to replace the Orichalcum smashfists he lost to the Solar Panther. Unlike smashfists of other magical materials, the Second Skin Gloves do not impair the flexibility or dexterity of the Lunar’s hands in any way. A Lunar could, if she wanted, wield an entirely different weapon while wearing the Second Skin Gloves, switching to these smashfists if she becomes disarmed. Or she could switch between brawling her enemies and attending to a task that needs dextrous fingers, like untying a rope or using precise tools to pick a lock. Disarming with the Second Skin Gloves is also quite simple, as when wearing them a Lunar can simply grab the blades being swung at her and pull them from her enemy’s grip.

When used to beat people about, treat the Second Skin Gloves as a Light Melee weapon with tags: Bashing, Brawl, Concealable, Worn, Grappling, Disarming

This Artifact has one Lunar Evocation:  
Evocation Name: Semi-autonomous Hands  
Cost: 6m  
Minimums: Essence 1  
Type: Reflexive  
Keywords: Obvious  
Duration: Action or Dramatic Action  
Prerequisites: None

The Second Skin Gloves can, with an infusion of Essence, become a second mind for the Lunar, gaining autonomy. Any action primarily accomplished by the Lunar’s hands can be offloaded to the Second Skin Gloves to perform with a thought, freeing the Lunar’s mind to focus on something else. The effect is uncanny, especially if the Lunar attempts to move their hands beyond the reach of their task - they strain to go back to it unless the Lunar releases the mote commitment. Activating this Charm provides the gloves some control over the Lunar’s shoulders and upper arms as well her forearms, palms and fingers, but does not extend to the Lunar’s torso or beyond.

In combat, the Lunar may ignore the penalties to her accuracy/pool and defense when using the Charm to perform a hand-based attack, miscellaneous action (including sign-language based social attacks), or a draw/ready weapon action within a flurry. Out of combat, the Lunar may perform some hand-based task, such as shaving down Jade spring replacements to repair her warstrider, while being able to fully concentrate on another task, such as reading her warstrider operating manual (holding the book and turning the pages with her feet). 

If the Lunar continues to focus on the task they’ve given the Second Skin Gloves, she gains the bonus for cooperation appropriate for that task with herself (usually additional dice or successes).

 **Islebreaker, Moonsilver and Black Jade trident**  
Artifact 5  
Leviathan’s trident, Islebreaker, looks like a weapon build recently and in reverence to the Dragons with its ironwood shaft and three pronged black Jade tips. But hidden in the core is a shaft of Moonsilver waxing and waning. It is decorated with a wave motif carved into its shaft and three prongs. At a glance the waves appear as an empty sea full of breakers, but on very close inspection citiscapes and populations are etched in microscopic detail before the waves, apparently to scale. The scenes collectively depict every Tsunami that took human life unaware from Year 0 of the Age of Man to year 433 when the First Deliberative treatied with the gods of natural disasters within the Bureau of Nature and all her subordinates in Yu-Shan and Creation. Those talks won the right to fair warning for every human in Creation, ending this loss of life, though some souls still consciously met their end that way. Admiral Kendrik Arkadi crafted it as a reminder that the sea was on the side of the Deliberative for his bonded Lunar and mentee, Leviathan.

This Artifact is enchanted to know its wielder and maker. The soul of Kendrik Arkadi and Leviathan may wield this Artifact without penalty, even through reincarnations of their Exaltation. Any other wielder must be able to attempt a 30+ Strength feat of strength and succeed on a feat of strength at difficulty 60 when first lifting it before it yields - even after attunement. Any success the wielder is short reduces their accuracy pool by 1, to a minimum of 0. If no penalties are incurred, Islebreaker accepts you among its chosen few, and does not challenge you again in this life.

Due to its massive inertia, disarm attempts against Islebreaker are at difficulty 15 instead of 3, and successful ones drop Iselbreaker in close range instead of short, as the weapon’s Essence resists being moved by anyone who has not bested its challenge. Attacks using Islebreaker also ignore any damage reductions based on size, such as those granted by Legendary Size. 

It currently sits on the throne of Luthe, waiting for Kendik Arkadi’s reincarnation to claim it. Leviathan has long since forgone human-sized weaponry. Islebreaker is legendary in Luthan society; many passerby offer short prayers to the great whale god or Islebreaker itself for protection. Any wielder who attunes gains Cult 1 from the prayers Luthans regularly send to this symbol of martial defense, and could easily find more worshipers to increase this Cult if they actively wore Islebreaker in the presence of Luthans or if many see someone lift the impossibly heavy weapon from its resting place. Assuming Leviathan allows you to do so and live, of course.

When used in combat, Islebreaker has the following tags: Lethal, Melee, Piercing, Reaching, Two-Handed, Couched

Couched: This weapon may be used one-handed when couched (tucked in close to a locked elbow or other stable fixture) during a mounted charge.

This Artifact has several Lunar Evocations:  
Evocation Name: Ripples to Waves  
Cost: - (1+m)  
Minimums: Essence 1  
Type: Reflexive  
Keywords: None  
Duration: Indefinite (duration of attunement)  
Prerequisites: None

Every wave that crashes on the ocean shore begins as a disturbance in the sea far from its landing. Learning Ripples to Waves internalizes this lesson, allowing the user to harness their Essence to make a mark when they lift Islebreaker and have that action crash down on their enemies years later.

When attuning to Islebreaker, the wielder may choose the amount of motes they use to attune (from 1 mote up to 5 or her Strength, whichever is higher). This fattens or thins the Moonsilver core in Islebreaker. At its highest setting the ironwood expands slightly outward; at its lowest setting it can subtly rattle when shaken violently as the moonsilver bends to knock against the inside of the shaft. The wielder may not release these committed motes without also breaking her attunement to Islebreaker. A different amount of motes may be chosen each time the wielder attunes to Islebreaker.

The attunement motes resonate with the enchantment making Islebreaker all but unwieldable to others, increasing its damage for each mote attuned (say, from +14 to +19 at the 5m setting). This damage enhancement counts as dice added from Charms on damage rolls it influences.

Evocation Name: Waves to Breakers  
Cost: 1+m  
Minimums: Essence 3  
Type: Supplemental  
Keywords: Obvious, Withering-Only  
Duration: Instant  
Prerequisites: Ripples to Waves

Once seaside folk see a tidal wave crest and break, it is far too late to flee. Islebreaker embodies this concept; when striking an opponent the wielder may send their Essence through this weapon to enhance its power. Doing so causes phantasmal waves to crush their opponent between Islebreaker and whatever stops its lethal advance, usually the third stone wall or so, or a few feet into the ground.

The wielder may increase the raw damage of Islebreaker’s attacks by 1 per 1 mote spent before their strike roll, up to a limit of 60 motes spent per attack. This damage increase counts as non-Charm dice.

Evocation Name: Breakers to Ruin  
Cost: -  
Minimums: Essence 5  
Type: Permanent  
Keywords: None  
Duration: Permanent  
Prerequisites: Waves to Breakers

When a Tsunami knocks you down with the first smack of water, it hurts. But then the entire risen wall of ocean floods across your body, crushing you for minutes, never letting up. Islebreaker, unsurprisingly, does the same. 

Any withering damage the wielder inflicts against a target that has fallen into Initiative Crash does not drop the target’s Initiative further nor does it grant the wielder Initiative, even the 1 Initiative bonus for landing a successful attack. Instead apply the damage directly to the target’s Health Track as lethal damage (as if the wielder were a battlegroup).


	2. Tattoo Artifacts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Weapon and wielder merge and flow.

Full Moons take the saying that your weapon is an extension of your arm seriously, and often literally. Below are some sample Moonsilver Tatoo Artifacts, their Lunar Evocations, and the Full Moon Lunars who use them to subdue anything in their paths.

 **One Thousand and One Scars, The Moonsilver Tattoo chainmail of Magnificent Jaguar**  
Artifact 3  
Magnificent Jaguar, as a Full Moon Lunar who spent most of his time in the First Age associating with the Swords of Luna, was well equipped to the exile the Lunars endured after the Usurpation. When Lunars fled to the Wyld he sought them out and found others of his kind who had spent their lives in the shadows and safety of the Deliberative. He bared his fangs and shed his blood against the horrors of the Wyld so that the Lunars in his charge might make it through that dark time. One such was the No Moon Odessa, The Sun's Eagle. She had spent her time with the Cauldronists learning sorcery, artifice, and the finer points of sorcerous workings. As they traveled together, romance blossomed. When Odessa learned of Raksi's form-fixing method she poured her all into protecting her protector while fixing Magnificent Jaguar's Caste. The result is the oldest known Tattoo Artifact.

The statistics are the same as a moonsilver chainmail shirt (see 3e Core page 599), with the bonus of being compatible with other armor and considered natural soak as it is etched into Magnificent Jaguar's skin. Magnificent Jaguar usually prefers not to encumber himself further, and these rings shine as his only protection beyond his own Exalted might.

One Thousand and One Scars has several Lunar Evocations:  
Evocation Name: Scattered Rings Preserve Magnificence  
Cost: -  
Minimums: Essence 1  
Type: Permanent  
Keywords: None  
Duration: Instant  
Prerequisites: None

When Magnificent Jaguar would take a crippling injury in lieu of damage One Thousand and One Scars instead spontaneously explodes in a shower of ephemeral moonsilver rings that evaporate upon hitting the ground (and Magnificent Jaguar is unharmed). One point of crippling showers off 425 rings, two points 850 rings, and three or more points expends all 1001 rings. In all cases One Thousand and One Scars loses all of its protection and access to all other Evocations when any rings are missing. The rings magically reappear at the rate of one per day until all 1001 have returned, at which point the armor regains its full potency and this and other Evocations may be used again. This is not optional - if enough rings are available they are expended. Since learning Echo of the Sun Eagle, Magnificent Jaguar has not elected to take a crippling injury under any non-lethal circumstance, instead bearing the damage from all attacks.

Evocation Name: Willful Preservation  
Cost: 1+ wp  
Minimums: Essence 1  
Type: Permanent  
Keywords: None  
Duration: Instant  
Pre-requisites: Scattered Rings Preserve Magnificence

Whenever Magnificent Jaguar uses willpower to enhance his Dodge or Parry he gains +[Essence] to his soak against that attack. One Thousand and One Scars resonates with the need to keep him from harm.

Evocation Name: Silver Light Transmutation  
Cost: - (5+m)  
Minimums: Essence 2  
Type: Permanent  
Keywords: None  
Duration: Instant  
Pre-requisites: Willful Preservation

Whenever Magnificent Jaguar uses Essence 5+m in a round to enhance his Dodge, Parry or Soak he gains +1wp (up to his maximum). One Thousand and One Scars exults when surrounded by Lunar Essence, bolstering him, reminding him of his charges when they were first inscribed on his body. Now that he knows Echo of the Sun Eagle, making it through battle to sleep and visit Odessa has replaced that motivation.

Evocation Name: Bestial Release  
Cost: 1 Limit (lose existing marks)  
Minimums: Essence 2  
Type: Reflexive  
Keywords: None  
Duration: Instant  
Pre-requisites: Willful Preservation

With this Charm Magnificent Jaguar may power Willful Preservation with his Limit instead of willpower. Doing so causes him to suffer his full limit break condition, Curse of the Hungry Wolverine (See 2e Lunars page 122), for that scene (including restoring willpower when it ends, see 3e Core page 136). Partial limit is not possible. Once activated Magnificent Jaguar can continue to power Willful Preservation with his remaining Limit (down to 0 Limit) with no further effect in the scene. Use of this Evocation has earned Magnificent Jaguar a reputation of being unhinged and remarkably bull-headed among members of the Silver Pact. Magnificent Jaguar doesn't care, having drifted from their company to his secluded Manse and deep sleep long ago. Magnificent Jaguar basked under the light of the full moon any time it was in the sky before he started his long slumber, but now in the throng of his jungle tribes he spends less time under the full moonlight.

Evocation Name: Echo of The Sun Eagle  
Cost: -  
Minimums: Essence 3  
Type: Permanent  
Keywords: None  
Duration: Instant  
Pre-requisites: Bestial Release, Silver Light Transmutation 

Magnificent Jaguar only learned of this last Evocation after the death of his lover Odessa. It perfectly protects Magnificent Jaguar's Intimacy with Odessa from degradation. When Magnificent Jaguar sleeps he is visited by Odessa in his dreams - since her death he has had no other type of dream. Sometimes they travel the Wyld, she marveling at its strangeness and he wary for threats like when they first came to love one another. Sometimes they fight the horrors of the Wyld or even that last battle where he failed to save her. Other times he is with Odessa at one of the Deliberative's many social functions neither happened to attend, or sharing a domestic scene surrounded by First Age splendor that was not in their past at all. Shortly after learning this Evocation Magnificent Jaguar locked himself in his Manse and activated a device that took him into a deep sleep to explore his life with his lost love. Odessa, even her copy, has gently urged him to leave her to rejoin the world for centuries, reminding him that she will always be in his dreams, but Magnificent Jaguar has stubbornly refused her for those same centuries. Only in the last century has a new Lunar woken him from his slumber and he finds this new age and lessened world strange to his ancient eyes.

 **Bonepiercers, Moonsilver Slayer Khatars of Blood Orchid**  
Artifact 3  
Blood Orchid’s tribe was brought low by a demonic cult that used Malfean rituals to grant the shamen of the tribe the thaumaturgic power to call demons from their prison. Once in Creation in sufficient numbers, they slew their summoners, for the demons swore no surrender oaths to mortals. As a warrior of the tribe, Blood Orchid escaped the demons’ ambush with her life, but soon despaired as she dragged herself, wounded and without weapons, through the jungle. Untreated wounds fester in the wet heat under the canopy, and she had no shaman to treat her.

Luna was her shaman that day. Later, when she sat for her tattooing, she requested that she never be unarmed again. The elder who marked her pooled moonsilver about her wrists and hands, coaxing the mutable metal into an Artifact. When Blood Orchid wills it, the moonsilver extrudes from her tattoos to encapsulate both of her hands in conical spikes, each bearing a tip sharp enough to pierce bone. She has perforated many demons since that day.

This Artifact has no known Evocations.


	3. Demense, Manse, and Hearthstone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shifting fortresses from which to strike.

The Full Moon at rest in her Demesne or Manse can husband her Essence for the battles to come, or lick her wounds from previous engagements. There they resonate with places of power, powerful as they are themselves, finding strength in the land’s strength. While many Full Moons do not take the time to learn the arcane art of Geomancy needed to shape Dragon-lines into proper form, or harness them with magical buildings, they excel in taking and holding territory. Many of the Demesnes and Manses owned by Full Moon Lunars predate the Lunars themselves, and some have mysteries unknown to their current martially focused owners. 

**Moonbeam Fortress**  
Lunar Demesne 2  
In the depths of the far West near the sunken city of Luthe lies a place where the moonlight trapped in the sea gathers. All day and all night it glows with moonlight, forever shining, a minor reflection of the Silver Chair. The great whale god Leviathan swims there to bask in the light and the solitude.

When entering the Moonbeam Fortress’ sphere of influence, any who are dependent on sight are blinded. This makes it extremely hard to attune to the Demesne considering its center is within a warren of vast, shifting sea-caves. But to a whale gifted with sonar like Leviathan, sight is not so necessary for navigation, and he conquered its maze. He discovered the path to attuning to the Moonbeam Fortress, but has not shared it with any but his former pup Swims in Shadows.

To the master of the Demesne, a thought can bend the moonlight away from the eyes of visitors or Leviathan himself. The Moonbeam Fortress remembers its master’s wishes, and does not trouble sanctioned visitors with lights to the eyes any longer. All such memories of the Demesne are lost when a new master attunes to it, providing a blank slate its new master to write upon. To those unwelcome, they are effectively blinded; any unwelcome visitor suffers from blinded penalties (3e Core page 168).

The Sea of Soul Harvest of the Moonbeam Fortress is moonlight-fortified sea-wax. When a wick is surrounded by this wax and burned like a candle, moonlight erupts from the silver-blue flame instead of Creation’s fire. In addition to mundane lighting needs, sorcerous rituals that call for heat and light but are sensitive to elemental imbalances once made use of moonlight-fortified sea-wax. Some references are still found in First Age books of sorcery. Curiously, once lit, it will continue to burn underwater. But today it goes unharvested, for the great whale god does not dabble in such arts.

The Moonbeam Fortress’ moonlight-fortified sea-wax retains its inner glow for roughly a year when kept in salt-water at the same salinity as the sea. When removed from salt-water it lasts roughly a week before it cracks and lets its light out in a single flash.

 **Cairn of the Jaguar**  
Lunar Manse 5  
The Cairn of the Jaguar is a stone pyramid whose many levels are all accessible by a grand stair climbing each face from base to summit. It boasts all the conveniences one would need to live including crops that spring from indoor greenhouses and fresh water diverted from an underground river. Inside the Manse, no plant will grow to maturity, retaining its seedless sapling form for eternity. The same goes for beasts, who never grow out of their child-like proportions and size, staying puppies or colts or cubs forever. Humans are not so affected, but mentally they appear more playful and carefree. That might be the effect of the puppies, not the Manse, however.

This is just an aftereffect of the Manse's true power. In the hearthroom, instead of producing a hearthstone, a coffin-like apparatus is raised on a dais. When an attuned being enters that small space, gives a command on when to be woken, then falls asleep, they will stay asleep until the command's condition will come to pass. The Manse sees to their body's needs, but rather than just restful sleep the attuned being experiences a de-aging exactly like the initial purchase of the Lunar Charm Time-Bending Chrysalis (Glories: Luna page 24). However, in its current unmaintained state, only access to the Bear Sleep Technique (Lunars 2e page 156) can be granted, providing no further benefit until the underlying Dragon-Lines have been fully restored.

Magnificent Jaguar has famously slept there for nearly all of the Dragon-Blooded rule of Creation. He slept with the conditions 'when the Dragon-Blooded come' and ‘until I am fully restored to youth’. Unbeknownst to him in his slumber, the de-aging effects went offline. If it weren’t for a Wyld Hunt chasing a newly Exalted Lunar, Fist of the Starless Sky, through the jungle, he would be sleeping there still. For a favor, he will allow other Lunars to sleep there, but demands that they set the condition "When Magnificent Jaguar comes to wake me." This is just one more precaution against the forever sleep he narrowly avoided himself.

If the attuned being already knows Bear Sleep Technique, when they slumber in the hearthroom’s coffin they gain the benefit of Time-Bending Chrysalis even in the Cairn’s state of disrepair. If the attuned being already knows Time-Bending Chrysalis, when they slumber in the hearthroom’s coffin they gain the benefit of Time-Bending Chrysalis’ repurchase even in the Cairn’s state of disrepair. If they have already repurchased Time-Bending Chrysalis, then after a normal night’s sleep in the coffin they may wake yet still benefit from the Charm’s de-aging effects so long as they do not leave the hearthroom, even in the Cairn’s state of disrepair. Should the Cairn of the Jaguar be repaired, reduce the prerequisite Charms needed for the enhanced effects listed here by one.


	4. Charms

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Powers of Luna's Chosen.

All Lunars channel Essence to enhance their bodies and minds to whatever end they have set themselves upon. But the Full Moon Lunar heavily favors the enhancement of their bodies and the battle-quickness of their minds. Below are a few Charms that have served Full Moon Lunars on the battlefields they often stride across. 

Charm Name: Scorpion and Toad Refusal  
Cost: 5+/-m  
Minimums: Stamina 3, Essence 1  
Type: Reflexive  
Keywords: None  
Duration: Instant  
Pre-requisites: Scorpion and Toad Assumption

The Lunar learns to channel a foreign poison within her own body to her mouth where it forms a congealed ball that she may spit out onto the ground. The poison is not neutralized, but it is expelled, vexing the Lunar no longer. She may save the sample for later study, or dip her own weapon in the substance to use against her aggressor, or any other suitable action a dose of poison could conceivably be used for - including repoisoning the Lunar if she touches it again unprotected and it is of the contact poison variety.

For each unit of duration the poison had remaining, add 1 mote to the cost of Scorpion and Toad Refusal. For each damage a single unit of duration would have inflicted, add 1 mote to the cost of Scorpion and Toad Refusal. Reduce the cost of Scorpion and Toad Refusal by 5 motes if the poison does Bashing damage. Alternatively increase the cost by 5 motes if the poison does aggravated damage or damages a non-health/non-Initiative resource. 

Charm Name: Skin-Paint the Inner World  
Cost: 15m  
Minimums: Appearance 5, Essence 3  
Type: Simple  
Keywords: None  
Duration: Instant  
Pre-requisites: Glance-Oration Technique

The Lunar uses their skin or fur or feathers to twirl in colors that hypnotize anyone willing to see the message by looking deeply for a brief moment. In that moment (which in combat is a forfeited combat action for both the Lunar and their targets, but quick enough to be abstracted in non-combat time) they experience with all their senses a memory the Lunar relives - which could be subjectively long despite the objective quickness of the Charm. The Lunar substitutes their Appearance for the Attribute of any rolls created by this action - which could be a social roll such as Instill or Inspire using the hypothetical scene as the impetus for their argument, or a Lore roll if teaching the observer, or even a Medicine roll if treating a patient by exposure therapy.

A well-known downside of this Charm is the character’s ability to sleep-talk using their skin. When the Lunar is asleep and reaches or is already at their full mote limit, this Charm may automatically activate when dramatically appropriate to do so. They may blow their cover by revealing their Lunar nature, or frighten those they’re protecting with savage combat scenes, or show their true feelings to a love interest they were too shy to approach. No matter what they reveal, knowing this Charm makes their mind less private, sometimes placing its contents on public display.

A repurchase at Essence 5 allows the Lunar to create any scene the Lunar wishes to dream up, not limited by what they can remember. However, this allows the sleep-talking with their skin to happen even while they are awake, whenever they are resting absentmindedly, or when they are sufficiently distracted. What is shown in this passive use at this level no longer needs to be true, however, and is just as likely to be a Lunar’s daydream as one of their memories.

Charm Name: Spider Sense Reflex  
Cost: -  
Minimums: Wits 4, Essence 3  
Type: Permanent  
Keywords: None  
Duration: Instant  
Pre-requisites: Meerkat Alertness Practice

Seeing a Lunar with the Spider Sense Reflex enter the fray is to see something so fast as to border on precognition. 

Once per scene when activating Meerkat Alertness Practice, the Lunar gains her Essence in non-Charm successes to the Join Battle roll. This Charm has no native reset condition.

Charm Name: Fight or Flight Response  
Cost: -  
Minimums: Wits 5, Essence 5  
Type: Permanent  
Keywords: Obvious  
Duration: Instant  
Pre-requisites: Spider Sense Reflex

Responding to a predator’s ambush or pouncing on prey is a call of nature older than the Lunar, older than Luna, and as they say in the Silver Pact, “Long before the wolf.” It is with Gaia that the predation cycle began in creation, where meat and bone have lasting consequences in contrast to the story-stealing chaos of the Wyld. A Lunar who has mastered the Fight or Flight Response can respond to battles with a green flash emanating from her Castemark, which instantly gains one anima level when activating this Charm. 

Once per scene when activating Meerkat Alertness Practice, Fight or Flight Response allows the Lunar to gain double 9’s on their join battle roll. If the Lunar has Essence 2, they instead gain double 8’s. If the Lunar has Essence 3, they instead gain double 7’s. If the Lunar has Essence 4, they instead gain double 6’s. If the Lunar has Essence 5, they instead gain double 5’s. At Essence 6+, they instead gain double 4’s. This Charm has no native reset condition.

 **Falling Blossom Style**  
The Falling Blossom stylist is selfish. She knows this in her soul, even if no one ever describes her as such. She wants to be outlived, and she will not hear the people in her life tell her otherwise. To watch the suffering of her loved ones hurts more than fists or knives or sickness. So she chooses the lesser hurt. 

The Falling Blossom stylist is selfless. She interposes herself between her loved ones and harm, physically and metaphysically. To be loved by a Falling Blossom stylist is to know protection. To fight with one is to know sacrifice. To watch one die protecting her charge is to hear the last chord of a song, to experience the last line in a poem. It is a finality completely fitting the life the Falling Blossom lived. 

All of this is accomplished unarmored - the better to quickly be where the Falling Blossom is needed. A knife or sword can aid in parrying and striking, and this style can also be practiced unarmed. While not strictly required to learn the Charms, a close friend or other loved one nearby makes many of the effects of Falling Blossom Style most effective, and students of this style often seek its power with a special someone in mind.

Style Weapons: Unarmed, knives, short swords  
Style Armor: Unarmored only

Charm Name: Living Shield Technique  
Cost: 1m  
Minimums: Martial Arts (Falling Blossom) 1, Essence 1  
Type: Supplemental  
Keywords: Dual, Obvious  
Duration: Instant  
Prerequisites: None

The ward of a Falling Blossom who is executing a Defend Other action (3e page 196) supplemented by this Charm is more fully protected than by a simple bodyguard. When an attacker manages to inflict damage through a Falling Blossom’s Defend Other (using the parry derived from their Falling Blossom Ability), the attacker’s damage must target the guardian (either Initiative or Health Levels). 

The strike may still land on the ward, but the wound opens on the Falling Blossom. This is the first technique of the Falling Blossom, and it sets the tone for all to come. Sacrifice, defense, protection. Even when the Falling Blossom’s strength of arm fails, their spirit still defends what they care for, what they live for, what they die for.

Charm Name: Undefended Assault Method  
Cost: 7m  
Minimums: Martial Arts (Falling Blossom) 2, Essence 1  
Type: Supplemental  
Keywords: Withering-only, Perilous, Mastery  
Duration: Instant  
Pre-requisites: Living Shield Technique

The Falling Blossom does not consider whether she will live or die in battle. All of that concern is focused on others. When they see a source of harm aimed at something they love, eliminating the threat becomes paramount. A Falling Blossom may use Undefended Assault Method when attacking with a form weapon (unarmed or wielding a knife or sword) to sacrifice all of her defense to gain that many automatic successes on a withering strike roll. Treat this loss of defense as an onslaught penalty, removed normally on the Falling Blossom’s next action. If another effect cancels or reduces this loss of defense at the time of the strike, then successes are gained only equal to the defense lost. Later changes to the Falling Blossom’s defense are ignored - by then the strike is in the past, just like the combat advantage of the threat to their loved ones.

Mastery: The first success gained from Undefended Assault Method is a non-Charm success.

Charm Name: Dual Scarlet Blossom Technique  
Cost: 1+m  
Minimums: Martial Arts (Falling Blossom) 2, Essence 1  
Type: Supplemental  
Keywords: Decisive-only, Terrestrial  
Duration: Scene  
Pre-requisites: Living Shield Technique

Blood calls to blood. The Falling Blossom knows this in her soul, as her charge’s blood feels like her own, hurting her as much or more when she sees it spilled. With this Charm, it is. Any significant wound sprouts blood or blossoms bruises from them both. 

When the Falling Blossom joins battle she may call out with her spirit to someone she holds dear. She may spend motes up to the intensity of that Intimacy (None: 1, Minor: 2, Major: 3, Defining: 4, 3e Core page 170), binding her blood with her charge’s so long as the battle lasts and the motes are committed. 

When her charge takes 2 or more health levels of damage from any source, such as a single decisive attack, falling damage, or even self-harm to power Charms or other effects, the damage is split between the Falling Blossom and her charge. The Falling Blossom takes half, rounded up, of the damage meant for her charge, to a limit of damage taken by the Falling Blossom equal to the motes committed. The charge’s damage taken is reduced by the amount taken (ignoring any prevented) by the Falling Blossom. 

Terrestrial: This Charm cannot fill the Terrestrial’s Incapacitated health level. It simply fails, soaking as much damage as it can prior to the Incapacitated health level, then dropping the mote commitment, and the Falling Blossom cannot share damage any more via this or any other Falling Blossom Style Charm for the scene even if they somehow regain health levels. A Terrestrial user cannot make the ultimate sacrifice with this Charm, instead they are doomed to watch their loved ones fall as their technique fails. 

Charm Name: Falling Blossom Form  
Cost: 10m  
Minimums: Martial Arts (Falling Blossom) 3, Essence 1  
Type: Simple  
Keywords: Form, Mastery, Terrestrial  
Duration: Scene  
Pre-requisites: Dual Scarlet Blossom Technique, Undefended Assault Method

The Falling Blossom does not fall until she sees safe those who need her protection. This armor of belief can delay the bodily injuries she takes in battle. While this Charm is active delay the consequences of a Falling Blossom’s incapacitated health level being filled as long as any positive Intimacy of hers is still under threat in the battle, and ignore any damage that would exceed their incapacitated health level(s). Further, they ignore wound penalties to Defense while Defending Other (3e page 196) up to the highest intensity of the Intimacy they have for the one(s) being defended. She can only weaken and die once she has fulfilled her duty. When the Form drops or when none of her Intimacies are under threat, apply any consequences of their incapacitated health levels as they stand at that moment.

Terrestrial: If an incapacitated health level fills during battle and is delayed by this Charm, they suffer the effects of that incapacitated health level (usually unconsciousness for bashing, death for lethal or aggravated) when this Charm ends even if they have somehow erased that damage in the interim.

Mastery: At Essence 3+ the Duration increases to Indefinite and the master may benefit from the Form effects simply from her positive Intimacies' presence, they need not be under threat. The Falling Blossom master who chooses to devote herself to this Charm may only be killed with violence when she is separated from any who she loves. 

Charm Name: Purity of Purpose Attack  
Cost: 4m, 1wp  
Minimums: Martial Arts (Falling Blossom) 4, Essence 2  
Type: Supplemental  
Keywords: Decisive-only, Destiny-only, Mastery  
Duration: Instant  
Pre-requisites: Falling Blossom Form

The Falling Blossom knows what she is meant to do in life. Eliminating her target is either fulfilling that destiny or stopping someone from derailing it. As a special activation rule, the Falling Blossom may only use this Charm when furthering a Destiny background she knows of (such as striking an assailant that has targeted someone she is destined to protect). Decisive strike attacks with a form weapon supplemented by Purity of Purpose Attack automatically succeed. 

Any practitioner that cannot have the Destiny Background (Scroll of the Monk page 151) may use this Charm to target a foe who has threatened or harmed one of her Intimacies.

Mastery: The masters of this style make their own destinies. Ignore the Destiny-only keyword of this Charm and its special activation rule when a master uses Purity of Purpose Attack.

Charm Name: Strength of Faith Meditation  
Cost: -  
Minimums: Martial Arts (Falling Blossom) 4, Essence 2  
Type: Permanent  
Keywords: Mastery  
Duration: -  
Pre-requisites: Falling Blossom Form

The Falling Blossom can channel their devotion to ignore their weaknesses in more situations than desperate attempts to defend their charge. Strength of Faith Meditation, once learned, permanently alters the wound penalty reduction of Falling Blossom Form. With Strength of Faith Meditation’s enhancement, ignore wound penalties to all actions so long as any Intimacy of hers is under threat in the scene, using the highest such Intensity for the limits. 

Mastery: At Essence 4+, the penalty reduction can apply to any die or static value reduction (poisons, crippling injuries, blindness, onslaught, other situational penalties), not just wound penalties. Masters may explicitly and specifically exempt this from applying to the Purity of Purpose Attack onslaught penalty (while still ignoring other onslaught penalties) when they activate Falling Blossom Form enhanced by Strength of Faith Meditation.

Charm Name: Verse of the Martyr  
Cost: -  
Minimums: Martial Arts (Falling Blossom) 5, Essence 3  
Type: Permanent  
Keywords: Mastery  
Duration: -  
Pre-requisites: Strength of Faith Meditation, Purity of Purpose Attack

When learning this Charm, the Falling Blossom composes a poem to a single person who she most wants to live on in this life. Their soul is so perfect, they do not want to live in a world where the other does not also live. As a special activation rule, this Charm can only target living beings, not undead or ghosts. When the target’s incapacitated health level would be filled with lethal or aggravated damage, instead inflict enough damage to fill all the Falling Blossom’s health levels including incapacitated with that type of damage, regardless of distance or awareness. The entire attack strikes through the target of the verse, hitting the Falling Blossom instead, ignoring any effect on the original target. If a non-violent death should befall the Fallen Blossom’s target, that fate instead switches places, fully curing the target of all effects associated with that death (such as sickness, restoring them to health, or old age, restoring them to youth) while the Fallen Blossom falls in their place should she not have some way to save herself from that particular malady. Unlike other Charms of this style, the target of the verse is spared even if the Martyr has some way to survive the harm they have taken on. 

Mastery: The Solar and Abyssal Falling Blossoms can write numerous verses, each targeting a different soul. Targets up to the master’s Essence may know protection under the magnanimity of the sun, or a pardon from Lethe and Oblivion. Sidereal Falling Blossoms cannot usually use this Charm to take the death themselves, and can only write the verse for one target, but they can find up to their Essence in threads that are so similar to their target that their poetry confuses the two strands in the Loom of Fate - when the target would die another similar thread is cut instead. When that condition triggers, they take Paradox equal to the target’s Essence, as the pattern spiders are incensed at the deliberate miscalibration of causality.


End file.
